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MORE than 100 stitches were used to close the wounds caused by a shark which attacked a primary school student on the Mid-North Coast.

Jack Moir was catching waves at Shelly Beach at Crescent Head, when he was attacked about sunset on Tuesday evening. His ankle and leg were bitten and it is understood the predator was a bull shark or bronze whaler, the most common inshore sharks on the Mid-North Coast.

The Crescent Head Primary School student was taken to Port Macquarie Base Hospital where he underwent four hours of surgery. His family, who have just moved to Crescent Head, were too distraught to speak yesterday but friends say the youngster was "doing OK''.

A friend said Jack was keen on surfing and would often go searching for waves with his friends after school. Crescent Head surf shop owner Peter Cornish said the sharks had been seen in the area, but the last time there was an attack off Crescent Head was decades ago when the same kind of sharkattacked a man snorkelling.

"They are very intimidating fish and surfers certainly don't want to have a confrontation with them because they are pretty vicious,'' Mr Cornish said.

Migrations of fish such as mullet, pilchards and bream at this time of year attract large numbers of sharks. Last month mother-of-five Becky Cooke, 38, was attacked by a shark off Warra Beach, Western Australian, before she fought it off.